Can't Help Myself
 
To consider an increasingly mechanized and automated global reality through the development of technologies and networks. Sun Yuan & Peng Yu’s new work, Can’t Help Myself(2016), engages AI robotics and a visual sensor control system. In the exhibition space, we find a large robotic arm with a shovel atop a base. The machine rotates and shovels back an unidentifiable viscous deep red liquid that spreads out from underneath and around the base. Over time, the repetitive shoveling leaves marks and residue that resemble bloodstains, evoking the idea of surveillance and warfare surrounding border control and land disputes. Akin to real life, the borders that emerge and disappear. Beyond the blood and lives sacrificed in border conflicts and wars, these security mechanisms affect the everyday, from surveillance cameras in urban areas to smartphones that allow us to document and share moments of our lives while monitoring and controlling our behavior. These multiple layers of surveillance point to the relationship between humans and machines; as we create machines and design programs to control them, we inadvertently become subjects of their monitoring.

（From the Guggenheim Museum Publication：Tales of Our Time, 123-124）

难自禁

孙原和彭禹的新作《难自禁》（2016）引入智能机器人和视觉检测控制系统，将通过科技和网络不断机械化、智能化的全球现实纳入他们的艺术探索中。在展厅里观众可以看到一个安置在基座上的大型机械手臂，其前轴上装有一把铲子。机器臂会沿着基座旋转，监视一滩深红色不明粘液。一旦粘液溢出边缘，机械臂就会将其铲回。经过一段时间的反复来回铲动，液体在地面上留下斑驳痕迹，仿佛是干涸残留的血迹，这场景不难让人联想到边界防卫和领土纠纷中的监控和战争，以及其中的血腥和残暴。无论是在现实生活还是在这件作品中，如此的机制都企图操控和防卫人为的政治界限，而这些界限的划定从来都是武断的，它们不断出现、消失。除了在边境冲突和战争中引发流血和牺牲，这些安保机制也在影响着我们的日常生活——从遍布城市空间的摄像头，到既记录和分享我们生活又监控并操纵我们行为的智能手机。多层监控也指向了人与机器间控制与被控制的关系：当人类野心勃勃发明机器并设计软件控制它们时，自己却也不可避免地成为了被监控的对象。

（摘自古根海姆美术馆出版物 《故事新编》， 123 - 124）